ADOPTION OF SELECTED ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES BY THE FARMERS

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine the adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices by the farmers and the factors influencing the adoption. Proshikaselected ecological farmers of

six selected upazilas of four districts of Dhaka division constituted the population of the study. A total of 144 farmers were finally selected which constituted the sample of the study by using random numbers. Data were collected from the farmers during February to August, 2006 by using a pre-tested interview schedule. Two case studies were conducted on a successful ecological farmer of Proshika and another successful ICM farmer of DAE to compare the two types of farmers with reference to purposes, methods and outcomes. Twenty five selected characteristics of the farmers were considered as the independent variables. Adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices by the farmers was the dependent variable. Overwhelming majority (86 percent) of the farmers had very low to low composite adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices, ecological nutrient management practices (84 percent) and ecological pest management practices (79 percent), while none had high adoption of composite ecological agricultural practices, ecological nutrient management practices and ecological pest management practices. Among ecological nutrient management practices, adoption of cowdung ranked first followed by crop residues/weed fertilizers, compost, poultry excreta, farmyard manure and others. Among ecological pest management practices, adoption of proper weeding and eradication of insect/disease attacked plants/plant parts ranked first followed by use of quality seed, crop rotation, pest control by ash, pest control by hand/hand net and others. On the basis of Average Standardized Benefit Index (ASBI) among the types of benefits obtained from ecological agriculture, social benefits ranked first followed by technical & economical benefit, environmental benefit and psychological benefit. On the basis of Average Standardized Problem Index (ASPI) among the types of problems faced by the farmers in using ecological agricultural practices, social problem ranked first followed by economical problem, psychological problem, technical and marketing problem. The correlation coefficient was initially computed to determine the relationships among the variables. Step-wise

multiple regression and path analyses were used to explore the contribution and effect of the

selected characteristics of the respondent farmers to/on their adoption of selected ecological

agricultural practices. Regression analysis indicated

that among other variables ecological agricultural knowledge of the farmers was the most crucial characteristics which strongly and positively influenced their adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices. Benefit obtained from ecological agriculture and attitude towards ecological agriculture also had remarkable positive influence upon adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices by the farmers. Training exposure, NGO contact, animal-poultry excreta availability, commercialization and risk orientation had somewhat positive influence on the adoption of ecological agricultural practices. Individual local contact and annual family income had somewhat negative influence on the adoption of ecological agricultural practices. The standardized partial ‘b’ co-efficients of the above 10 independent variables formed the equation contributing to 83.5 percent of the total variation in adoption. Results of path analysis revealed that attitude towards ecological agriculture had the highest (0.595) total indirect effects followed by risk orientation, benefit obtained from ecological agriculture, animal-poultry excreta availability, ecological agricultural knowledge and training exposure

in the positive direction. Individual local contact and annual family income had appreciable negative total indirect effect while commercialization had appreciable positive total indirect effect. The variable NGO contact had the lowest (0.078) positive total indirect effect on adoption of ecological agricultural practices.